Wilks Tests Positive For Drug

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Ex-p.b. Lakes Track Star Gets Suspension

September 19, 2001|By Sharon Robb STAFF WRITER

Former Palm Beach Lakes track star Antoinette Wilks was suspended for two years from competition after testing positive for a stimulant at the March 3 Pontiac Grand Prix USA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Atlanta.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency said Tuesday that the Sun-Sentinel's 1999 Palm Beach Girls Track Athlete of the Year from Jupiter tested positive for methylphenidate, a prohibited substance under the International Association of Athletics Federations rules. The IAAF is the international federation for the sport of track and field.

Wilks, 20, was suspended for two years from competition, the maximum sanction in accordance with the IAAF rules involving the prohibited use of methylphenidate.

However, the suspension will be reduced to 10 months, dating back to March 23, the date the "A" sample was reported positive, and ending Jan. 23, 2002, due to exceptional circumstances involving Wilks' medical necessity for taking methylphenidate.

The drug is a central nervous system stimulant prescribed for the treatment of narcolepsy and several other disorders. It is commonly manufactured under the brand name Ritalin.

Wilks, a sophomore at the University of South Carolina, will be granted a medical exemption by the IAAF at the conclusion of her suspension.

USA Track and Field, the national governing body for the sport in the United States, will carry out the sanction, which begins from the date of the test.

Wilks was a seven-time high school All-American as one of the county's top high school sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers.

She will be disqualified from her fourth-place finish in the long jump at the 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix USA Indoor Track & Field Championships.

It will not affect her collegiate status in the spring. She is still eligible to qualify for the 2004 U.S. Olympic track and field trials.

USADA is the independent anti-doping agency for Olympic sports in the United States.